The Food Class System

Welcome to The Food Class System™

Eating “nutrient rich”? at it’s core, is about eating 90- 95% or more nutrient rich foods in the great tasting ways you love, 10% or less of those foods considered nutrient poor and getting free of those foodstuffs that are nutrient barren.

The 3 Classes of Foods or The Food Class System which are based on USDA Data, ranks foods according to classes as determined by their nutrient profiles; considering, first and foremost, the nutrient-per-calorie ratios, or the “nutrient density” of foods as the foundation of making food choices.

H=N/C is the formula created by Joel Fuhrman M.D. stating that health (in terms of nutrition) is determined by the nutrient per calorie ratio of a food.

The purpose of the The Food Class System is not to drill down into the intricacies of which food is higher in what individual nutrient, or which food is specifically better than another. That would be more accurately handled by the ANDI (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index) created by Joel Fuhrman M.D.

With The Food Class System, we learn the nutrient profiles of the 3 classes of foods, at a higher level, and the nutrient profiles of foods based on 26 nutrients including, the most available data on phytochemicals (the one category of nutrients that best determine a foods nutrient density according to Dr. Fuhrman), and with deductions for saturated fat and cholesterol. Understanding the food classes will help you determine what to base your diet on and what % of your diet will be foods from other classes.

Understanding the “nutrient profiles” and the nutrient “density”  or “richness” of foods by class, is the simplest way to understand which are the best and healthiest foods to eat.

There are three classes of foods:

1. First Class “Nutrient Rich” foods from plant sources.

These are for the most part, foods that are rich in all the nutrients your body needs to function and perform in varying quantities, and does not include those substances that your body does not need.

The main exception is whole grains, which are largely devoid of phytochemicals but are still considered a Nutrient Rich food.

To eat the Nutrient Rich Way: Eat 80-90% or more.

2. Second Class “nutrient poor” foods from animal sources

These are foods that are rich in some nutrients but as whole foods are nutrient poor because they are missing whole categories of nutrients and provide substances the body does not need from dietary sources.

They are also not the healthiest sources of the nutrients they do provide.

Smaller amounts of Second Class foods, if you eat them

3. Third Class “nutrient barren” foods from either plant or animal sources.

These are foods that have had their nutrients stripped out. And while some are added back in for nutritional and marketing purposes, most of the ingredients are pleasure stimulating chemicals that leave you fat and sick.

Avoid Third Class foods, as much as possible.

How do I use the Food Class System?

  1. Go to the class of foods you want to study.
  2. Pick on the category of foods, i.e. Vegetables.
  3. Review the nutrient profiles of these foods as compared to other food categories.
  • Click on any of the Nutrient labels at the top to highlight that nutrient.
  • Highlight substances your body does not need from dietary sources like cholesterol for pop up explanations.

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What was our process for rating food groups?

We started by identifying 13 food categories that allowed us to place all potential foods into common-sense and non-overlapping areas. We then chose 7 foods to represent each food category, except for the egg category because Americans rarely eat eggs of fowl other than chickens. Once 7 foods had been assigned to each of the 13 categories, we normalized the nutrient composition of each food to 2,000 calories. In other words, we asked how much of each nutrient a person would obtain if he or she consumed 2,000 calories’ worth of that food. Even though a person would not make a single food the source of all their daily calories, looking at the nutrients in 2,000 calories of a single food allows for a health-based comparison. The amounts of nutrients in foods are usually compared by weight, such as 100 grams of each food. We believe that comparing nutrient content based on calories instead of weight is a better guide to healthy eating. Everyone has a certain number of calories to ‘spend’ every day on the nutrients that will keep him or her healthy and energetic!

To calculate the individual nutrient scores: 1) we calculated the amount of nutrients a person would get from eating 2,000 calories of each of the 85 foods 2) we averaged the 28 nutrients individually by category 3) we took these nutrient averages and compared them to a real-life health standard, in most cases, the Dietary Reference Intakes that have been established as public health guidelines in the area of nutrition; and 4) we turned this comparison into a percentage. Thus, every nutrient in a food category had a score. To calculate the total scores: we averaged each food category’s 28 nutrient scores together. Since lesser amounts of cholesterol, saturated fat and sodium are healthier, we subtracted their scores when we averaged them with the other nutrients instead of adding them.

How did we determine how much of each nutrient a person needs?

We used the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) as established by the National Academy of Sciences for a 19-30 year-old sedentary woman whenever possible. The six specific publications we used in this context were:

References

  • Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. The National Academies. 2002/2005.
  • Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate. The National Academies. 2004.
  • Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorous, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride. The National Academies. 1997.
  • Dietary Reference Intakes for Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6,Folate, Vitamin B12, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, and Choline. The National Academies. 1998.
  • Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Carotenoids. The National Academies. 2000
  • Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc. The National Academies. 2001

DRIs were not available for saturated fat or cholesterol, so we used the widely-recognized recommendations for a 2,000 calorie diet established in the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005.

References

  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005. 6th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, January 2005.

Since neither DRIs nor USDA Dietary Guidelines were available for monounsaturated fat, we used the American Heart Association’s recommendation as referenced below:

References

  • Krauss RM, Deckelbaum RJ, Ernst N, et al. Dietary guidelines for healthy American adults. A statement for health professionals from the Nutrition Committee, American Heart Association. Circulation. 1996 Oct 1;94(7):1795-800.

Since there was no established public health guideline of any kind for flavonoid intake, we used the following research articles to estimate average American intake at 175mg of flavonoids per day.

References

  • Gu L, Kelm MA, Hammerstone JF, et al. Concentrations of proanthocyanidins in common foods and estimations of normal consumption. J Nutr. 2004 Mar;134(3):613-7.
  • Manach C, Scalbert A, Morand C, et al. Polyphenols: food sources and bioavailability. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 May;79(5):77-47.

How did we determine the amount of nutrients in each food?

Most of our nutrient amounts were derived from the USDA’s National Nutrient Database, Standard Reference, Release 18. A dash (-) in our food chart indicates that no data was available. The additional sources we used for the flavonoid content of foods are listed below. Since animals cannot synthesize flavonoids, we limited our analysis of food flavonoids to plant foods.

References

  • U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 18. 2005.
  • Nutrient Data Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods. March 2003.
  • Nutrient Data Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. USDA Database for the Proanthocyanidin Content of Selected Foods. August 2004.
  • USDA-Iowa State University Database on the Isoflavone Content of Foods. 1999.
  • Azevedo L, Gomes JC, Stringheta PC, et al. Black bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) as a protective agent against DNA damage in mice. Food Chem Toxicol. 2003 Dec;41(12):1671-6.

Created for NutrientRich.com by Salugenecists, Inc.‘s MS, RD, and PhD nutritionists.